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The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) today allowed Qatada’s appeal against deportation after concluding there remained a risk he would not face a fair trial.

Mr Justice Mitting said the Home Secretary had failed to “satisfy” the court that there was no risk of evidence potentially obtained by torture being used against him.

The decision was a major humiliation for Mrs May who travelled personally to Jordan earlier this year to obtain assurances that Qatada would face a fair trial, details of which were then scrutinised by Siac.

It raises the prospect that Qatada could now remain in the UK indefinitely if the Government fails to overturn the ruling.

The Home Office immediately announced plans to take the case to the Court of Appeal as Mrs May said she “strongly disagrees” with Mr Justice Mitting’s decision and claimed he had applied the “wrong legal test” in coming to his conclusion.

In an emergency statement to the House of Commons, she said: “Despite these assurances, despite the determination of the Jordanian Government and judiciary to allow Qatada a fair trial, despite the change to the Jordanian constitution that expressly prohibits torture and the use of evidence obtained by torture, in the absence of clear case law Mr Justice Mitting still found in Qatada's favour.”

But she also blamed the original “deeply unsatisfactory” ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

She said the court "continues to move the goalposts for governments trying to deport dangerous foreign nationals".

Mr Justice Mitting effectively sided with the ECHR even though domestic courts previously ruled it is safe to return Qatada.

In 2009 the then Law Lords ruled there were no reasonable grounds to suggest Qatada would not get a fair trial.

Qatada is accused by Jordan of conspiring to cause explosions on Western and Israeli targets in 1998 and 1999.

But he has successfully fended off deportation for more than a decade and cost the British taxpayer more than £1 million in legal fees and costs to keep him here.

Ms Cooper accused Mrs May of making “overblown” promises that Qatada would be removed, telling the Commons: “This is an extremely serious and worrying judgment that means Abu Qatada will be back on Britain's streets.

"There are some serious questions that need to be answered about the Home Secretary's strategy to get this deportation in place and the action you are taking now to keep the public safe.”

Fellow Conservative Bill Cash urged the Home Secretary to urgently repeal the Human Rights Act so British courts not Europe could decide such cases.

Jordan's acting information minister Nayef al-Fayez said his government shared the British government's "disappointment and concern" and vowed to work with it to resolve the matter.

At Siac earlier, Robin Tam QC, for the Home Office, told Mr Justice Mitting: "You have ruled that there is a real risk of the admission of evidence, where there is a real risk that this evidence was obtained by torture.

"That is a possibility of a possibility which falls below the legal test.”

Speaking outside Siac, Qatada's solicitor Gareth Peirce said: "It is important to reaffirm this country's position that we abhor the use of torture and a case that was predicated upon evidence from witnesses who have been tortured is rejected – rejected by the courts of this country as by the European Court.”